SPY-ing a Manufactured Billboard Controversy

Even a corporate PR person with bad eyesight could have seen this one coming a mile away: A billboard along Highway 101 in Encinitas that reads ‘HAPPY TO SIT ON YOUR FACE’ generating angry complaints and, this morning, apologetic removal.

It’s a tailor-made faux PR controversy. While the folks at Carlsbad-headquartered SPY Optic eyewear will never admit to this publicly, they are without a doubt privately celebrating as they bookmark, print (and frame?) coverage on NBC San Diego, KFI AM 640 and elsewhere.

A spokesperson for SPY told NBC the campaign for upcoming 2013 product line Happy Lens was “all in good fun.” As in good, dirty-PR fun.